Deathwalks
The Deathwalks are the Angels of Death in service to the God King. In the time of the Age of Heroes, they would be sent to administer Rao's Judgment on any world that had displeased him and scour it of all life. They were even feared by the Watchers and Knights of the Holy Order, since the Deathwalks acknowledged only the authority of the Gods themselves. The actual Deathwalks were symbiotic creatures created by the Gods called Shrouds. In the creation of a Deathwalk, the Gods would find a mortal of extraordinary power and ability and bond them to the Shroud. The Shroud would then boost all their natural attributes and grant them an enigmatic form of element called Darkness. The Shroud would also overwrite and dominate the personality of the Host with its own, ensuring their unquestioning loyalty to the Gods. When Shiva went mad during the Cataclysm, Rao sent the Deathwalks against her in the hopes that their power of Darkness would be potent against her. They were ineffectual against her, and she defeated them, obliterating the minds of the Shrouds and killing their hosts. In the aftermath of her defeat, the Deathwalk Shrouds became mindless beasts and wandered the galaxies for thousands of years. They were eventually captured by the Holy Ghost, Zanko, who sought to use them as weapons against the All Union. This was permitted by Rao, who was impressed with the Ghost's recovery of the Shrouds but regarded them as useless since they had lost their sentience. He held onto them for years trying to figure out how best to use them, having his best scientists tinkering with them to see if they could be made to bond with hosts again. The experiment was a success, though the Shrouds would now require a host to direct their actions. The Ghost bonded them to his 4 strongest warriors, Cain, Brevara, Sihara, and Rayze, naming them as the commanders of the Holy Order's armies. With sarans as their hosts, the new Deathwalks gained access to the psychic powers possessed by the Shrouds, as well as their attribute amplification and fear inducing abilities. The power of Darkness possessed by the Shrouds mixed with the Burning Flames the sarans naturally used, creating a new power called Dark Flames which greatly enhanced their destructive powers. For years the Deathwalks acted as Angels of Death at the behest of the Holy Ghost, mercillesly killing all those who defied the will of the Holy Order. No one could stand against them, and it was said that it would take every Captain in the SENTINEL Order fighting at once to counter the united Deathwalks. Their leader was Cain, who had defeated Brevara at the age of 11 to gain the title of First Among the Deathwalks. The position made him Commander-In-Chief of the whole Holy Order Army, which when combined with his position of Prince of the Sarans made him the most powerful man in the Holy Order short of the Holy Ghost himself. The other Deathwalks answered only to him or the Ghost. 'Shrouds' The original Deathwalks were symbiotic creatures called Shrouds. Their origins were obscure and poorly understood, with even the Watchers being unaware of where and how their Gods had created them. The true story behind their creation lies in an infernal deal between Rao and the Dead King of Limbo. In his quest to gain control over the power of Darkness, Rao managed to procure four of the Dead King's Reapers. These he turned over to Forge, who managed to render them down and reshape as Shrouds, formless entities empowered with Darkness and mindlessly loyal to the Rao. These Shrouds would be grafted onto the most powerful mortals in service to the Gods. They would remain bonded to these individuals until they expired, at which point they would separate from them and wait to be grafted to another individual by their masters. Whoever was bonded to the Shroud enjoyed boosted abilities as well as control of the power of Darkness. The Shroud would take advantage of its time bonded to strong individuals to increase its own power, making every successive Deathwalk stronger than the one before it. 'Powers' Those bonded to a Shroud gained a number of unique abilities. All of these powers are based on Darkness and are connected to the Shrouds' origins as Reapers. Those bonded to a Deathwalk Shroud become avatars of Death. Dark Elementals: Beings bonded to a Shroud become infused with the power of Darkness and become Dark Elementals. Darkness is also known as the Power of Oblivion, and is capable of absolute destruction. Dark Elementals are also able to convert their body into darkness and move about in and as shadows, rendering themselves invulnerable to harm. Deathstare: An ability which grants several telepathic powers to the user. A common use of it among Deathwalks was to communicate with eachother psychically. Against others, the ability can be used to either fill them with the fear of death, or even overwrite their own perceptions trapping them in illusions of fear. When using the Deathstare, the Deathwalk's voice takes on a chilling echo and whoever hears it is compelled to do what the Deathwalk says. According to Cain, against low level opponents this power acts reflexively, but to be effective against opponents of a higher Power Class requires the expenditure of vast amounts of Aura. To those subjected against the Deathstare, a prevailing sense of helplessness overtakes them, that they are doomed so long as they remain in the Deathwalk's presence. Deathsense: A Deathwalk can sense when someone's time is near, or detect the weakness of an opponent and how best to kill them. If the power class of a target is sufficiently higher than the Deathwalk though this ability will not work. Dead Zone: An area effect Darkness ability which interferes with transmissions. It is used by the Deathwalks to prevent their targets from calling for help. When used at its maximum level, it can even remove the ability of people to make any sound whatsoever. Regeneration: The Deathwalk Shroud grants extreme durability to its host. In the event of lost limbs the Shroud can recreate them with its own essence, healing the host and regenerating nearly any wound. If the limb was covered with the Shroud's membrane and not destroyed, it can be summoned back to the main body and reattached. Cain discovered this ability during the fight with the Leviathan Solarus and used it to save himself during his fight with the Holy Ghost when his right arm was cut off. He was able to call it back to him as a slithering shadow which even wounded the Ghost on its way back to him, whereupon Cain reattached it. It should be noted though that despite this ability, pain and damage from injuries remain. 'Trivia' - Because they have the powers of Reapers, anyone killed by a Deathwalk is sent immediately to Limbo instead of languishing on the Astral Plane until a Reaper finds them. For this reason, it is nearly impossible for people killed by Deathwalks to be resurrected. - In order to keep control of the Deathwalks, the Gods created the Black Light. This was a lantern that emitted a light which paralyzed the Shroud symbiote. It is unknown how many the Gods had in their possession, but one was given to Orion's squad of Holy Paladins in order to subdue the Deathwalk Cain. This one was destroyed by Kara. - The Deathwalks draw their name from a poem that was often recited during the Age of Heroes to remind people not to draw the ire of the Gods: Beware The Moods Of The Gods And Behave When You Have Their Eye For When The Gods Are Pleased You'll Find Their Blessings Will Multiply But When The Gods Rage Death Walks Down From The Sky - By and large the Deathwalks were only ever deployed singly, though there was one occasion where the Holy Order had all 4 Deathwalks fighting at once. This occasion was the Battle of Daxia, which was considered the single greatest defeat in the history of the SENTINEL Order until the Battle of Jehda during the war with the Vampire Horde. During this battle the forces of SENTINEL and the Holy Order were locked in combat over the planet Daxia in the North Kingdom. As the battle started going poorly, an Extermination Order was invoked by SENTINEL and 5 entire Legions were sent to blast Daxia into atoms. To counter them, the 4 Deathwalks were deployed and they managed to single handedly crush the 5 Legions. This battle cemented the reputation of the Deathwalks across the Universe as unbeatable Angels of Death. - It is theorized that one of the first reasons the Gods created the Deathwalks was to use them as weapons against their enemies, the Leviathans. Leviathans are extremely weak to the Power of Darkness and we're easy victims for the Deathwalks. Even Cain before his attaining of the Oversaran form was able to fight off Solarus, generally considered one of the most powerful Leviathans.